This invention relates to a system for recording streams of information, themselves supplied without accompanying self-identificatory data or addresses, on a desired record medium along with addresses assigned thereto according to their storage locations on the medium. The recording system according to the invention is particularly well suited for the recording by the end user of a series of musical tunes, which may be supplied in the form of an analog signal from a source such as a phonograph record or magnetic tape, at addressable locations on a digital storage medium such as an optical disk as typified by a CD-R, recordable compact disk, although no unnecessary limitations to this particular application are intended.
User recording of music or other matter on CD-Rs or like digital record media is itself not new, as disclosed for example in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-370577. One of the problems encountered in user recording of music on CD-Rs has been how to make the recorded tunes individually addressable. Of course, when the music to be recorded comes from digital sources such as CDs, complete with addresses such as track numbers or tune numbers, the music is recordable with the original addresses.
The problem occurred in recording music from analog sources such as phonograph records or magnetic tapes. In these cases the user had to insert track numbers between the successive recordings, incrementing the track numbers at the pauses by audibly monitoring the recordings and/or by observing the visual indications of the recordings. The whole DC-R was ruined, wasted, and the complete program had to be re-recorded on another disk, if he or she failed to correctly detect the pauses for address insertion.
The present invention is designed to make it easier than heretofore for the user to re-record a series of musical tunes or other streams of information from their source such as a phonograph record or magnetic tape to a record medium as typified by the CD-R, along with addresses assigned thereto according to their storage locations, or tracks, on the record medium.
Another object of the invention is to make use of the playing times, ascertained previously, of the musical tunes in addressably re-recording them on the CD-R or the like, the playing times being usually printed on phonograph record jackets, leaflets, or the like.
Another object of the invention is to provide for cases where the user has to record tunes or other information streams whose playing times are not knowable, enabling him or her to accurately determine and input the playing times of the tunes or the like into the memory.
A further object of the invention is to make as many as, say, ninety-nine, or even more, different tunes or information streams individually addressable on a single record medium on which they have been re-recorded.
Briefly, the present invention may be summarized as a recording apparatus capable of recording a series of musical tunes or like information streams, supplied from an external source without self-identificatory data, on a record medium together with addresses assigned one to each information stream according to a storage location thereof on the record medium. Included is a memory for storing a series of incremental addresses to be assigned to successive information streams as the latter are recorded, and expected lengths in time of the information streams. During recording, the actual length in time of each information stream is measured by a timer. Connected to both the memory and the timer, a processor compares the expected and the actual length in time of each information stream that has been recorded, and increments the addresses stored on the memory upon agreement of the expected and the actual length in time of each information stream, thereby causing each information stream to be recorded on the record medium together with an address assigned thereto.
Thus the invention has succeeded in automating the insertion of addresses between the information streams being recorded. No errors, and no ruining and wasting of record media, is to occur as long as the expected lengths in time of the information streams to be recorded are correctly input to the memory.
The xe2x80x9clengths in time of information streamsxe2x80x9d in the foregoing summary is a generic term for the playing times of musical tunes in particular. In cases where the user knows the playing times, as from the phonograph record jacket or leaflet, he or she may input them into the memory according to visual instructions and immediately proceed to the re-recording of the tunes on the CD-R or the like. If the user does not know the playing time, then he or she has to measure them by playing the record or tape. The user is, however, saved from this trouble of measuring the playing times of the tunes in some additional embodiments of the invention, in which means are provided for helping the user determine and input the playing times of the tunes preliminary to their re-recording on the CD-R or the like.
In all the preferred embodiments to be disclosed, the invention uses the track numbers of the recorded tunes as their addresses. Up to ninety-nine tunes are therefore recordable and individually addressable in the case of the standard CD-R. However, in consideration of cases where greater numbers of information streams, such as items or pieces of sound effects, are to be recorded, an embodiment is disclosed in which each of the ninety-nine track numbers is combined with each of as many index numbers to serve as an address for one information stream, so that far greater numbers of information streams are recordable at addressable locations on one CD-R.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention and the manner of realizing them will become more apparent, and the invention itself will best be understood, from a study of the following description and appended claims, with reference had to the attached drawings showing the preferred embodiments of the invention.